Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1992, Page 34
The Appeal of the Impossible and
the Efflorescence of the Unbelievable:
A Psychoanalytic Perspective
on Cults and Occultism
David A. Halperin, M.D., F.A.P.A.
Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York, New York
Abstract
There has been a tremendous efflorescence of interest in the occult, the
supernatural, and the satanic. On the level of popular culture, widespread popularity
has been earned by books that embody themes of magic, the magical, and the
afterlife. In vulnerable individuals, this interest has encouraged an affiliation with
groups that propound magic(k) and occult rituals as serious solutions to severe
personal problems. This article presents brief descriptions of the more significant
writers whose work has led to the formation of occult groups and to an increased
interest in satanism. Relevant aspects of their work and its appeal to adolescents are
examined from a psychoanalytic perspective. Finally, case histories are presented to
illustrate these issues.
Our society has witnessed the unprecedented expansion of its scientific horizons into the
realms of the infinitely great and the infinitely minute. It has seen an extraordinary growth in
the knowledge of neuropsychology and neurophysiology, where human intervention into the
very structures of heredity has become so routinized that the procedures of genetic
engineering are of as great an interest to the stockbrokers as the scientist. This same society
has witnessed a paradoxical efflorescence of interest in the occult. Moreover, the very
adolescents whose parents form the avant garde of this scientific elite are avid consumers of
a new obscurantism with its systematized argot of “magick” and the satanic.
The increased interest in the occult and the nonrational among adolescents parallels the
growth of New Age paradigms in society as a whole. New Age boutiques spring up like
mushrooms, hawking ordinary crystals at truly extraordinary prices because of their “healing
powers.” New Age channelers, such as J. Z. Knight and Penny Torres, “communicate” with
“entities” named Ramtha and Mafu, who inhabit locales as diverse as Atlantis and Pompeii. On
a more malignant level, individuals desert their homes and families in fear of an impending
Armageddon, seeking shelter in Montana or joining organizations that promise temporal
power in the “new age of enlightenment.” Even in the Confederation of Independent States,
observers have noted an explosive growth of interest in the occult and the magical. This
article uses psychoanalytic insights to clarify the appeal of the incomprehensible and the
unbelievable (Halperin, 1983).
Historical Perspectives
Interest in “magick” is a persistent current in our technologically preoccupied civilization. In
the Renaissance, Pico della Mirandola introduced the study of Cabala to Christian intellectuals.
Paracelsus and Giordano Bruno, seminal figures in the creation of the scientific attitude, also
expressed an interest in the occult (Wills, 1992). In the 17th century, Rosicrucianism and
comparable systems played in the organization of science, including such groups as The Royal
Society. Later, within the political sphere, Freemasonry played an important cultural role
The Appeal of the Impossible and
the Efflorescence of the Unbelievable:
A Psychoanalytic Perspective
on Cults and Occultism
David A. Halperin, M.D., F.A.P.A.
Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York, New York
Abstract
There has been a tremendous efflorescence of interest in the occult, the
supernatural, and the satanic. On the level of popular culture, widespread popularity
has been earned by books that embody themes of magic, the magical, and the
afterlife. In vulnerable individuals, this interest has encouraged an affiliation with
groups that propound magic(k) and occult rituals as serious solutions to severe
personal problems. This article presents brief descriptions of the more significant
writers whose work has led to the formation of occult groups and to an increased
interest in satanism. Relevant aspects of their work and its appeal to adolescents are
examined from a psychoanalytic perspective. Finally, case histories are presented to
illustrate these issues.
Our society has witnessed the unprecedented expansion of its scientific horizons into the
realms of the infinitely great and the infinitely minute. It has seen an extraordinary growth in
the knowledge of neuropsychology and neurophysiology, where human intervention into the
very structures of heredity has become so routinized that the procedures of genetic
engineering are of as great an interest to the stockbrokers as the scientist. This same society
has witnessed a paradoxical efflorescence of interest in the occult. Moreover, the very
adolescents whose parents form the avant garde of this scientific elite are avid consumers of
a new obscurantism with its systematized argot of “magick” and the satanic.
The increased interest in the occult and the nonrational among adolescents parallels the
growth of New Age paradigms in society as a whole. New Age boutiques spring up like
mushrooms, hawking ordinary crystals at truly extraordinary prices because of their “healing
powers.” New Age channelers, such as J. Z. Knight and Penny Torres, “communicate” with
“entities” named Ramtha and Mafu, who inhabit locales as diverse as Atlantis and Pompeii. On
a more malignant level, individuals desert their homes and families in fear of an impending
Armageddon, seeking shelter in Montana or joining organizations that promise temporal
power in the “new age of enlightenment.” Even in the Confederation of Independent States,
observers have noted an explosive growth of interest in the occult and the magical. This
article uses psychoanalytic insights to clarify the appeal of the incomprehensible and the
unbelievable (Halperin, 1983).
Historical Perspectives
Interest in “magick” is a persistent current in our technologically preoccupied civilization. In
the Renaissance, Pico della Mirandola introduced the study of Cabala to Christian intellectuals.
Paracelsus and Giordano Bruno, seminal figures in the creation of the scientific attitude, also
expressed an interest in the occult (Wills, 1992). In the 17th century, Rosicrucianism and
comparable systems played in the organization of science, including such groups as The Royal
Society. Later, within the political sphere, Freemasonry played an important cultural role
